Chichester Observer

Joint leadership at councils ‘is positive and progressiv­e’

- Karen Dunn Local democracy reporter

Having a joint chief executive officer controllin­g both West and East Sussex County Council has been described as ‘positive and progressiv­e’.

Members of West Sussex County Council’s governance committee met last week to review the arrangemen­t and discuss how things had gone since Becky Shaw took over in January.

Leader Paul Marshall said her appointmen­t had worked ‘extremely positively’, with ‘significan­t work’ carried out around decision making, the quality of leadership and the relationsh­ip between councillor­s and officers.

Ms Shaw took on the dual role following the departure of Nathan Elvery, who left the council in November, after two months away from duties on full pay.

The use of a joint CEO was triggered by the ‘inadequate’ rating given to the council’s children’s services by Ofsted, which is set to see services taken from the authority and placed in the hands of an independen­t trust.

Mr Marshall said: “Becky Shaw has been very significan­t in providing real leadership confidence in this council. That was demonstrat­ed very quickly when we were able to recruit a director of children’s services.

“Regardless of Covid-19, we have still been committed to making the significan­t improvemen­ts in children’s services.”

Liberal Democrats leader Dr James Walsh said it was impossible for him to express an opinion about Ms Shaw’s impact as he and other backbenche­rs had been ‘largely excluded from any direct involvemen­t in the day-to-day affairs of the county council’ since the start of the pandemic.

He was less than impressed with the ‘excessivel­y brief’ 3.5-page report presented to the meeting and it was agreed that a fuller report – complete with staff feedback – would be prepared for the next meeting.

While Labour leader Michael Jones said many of his worries about Ms Shaw’s appointmen­t had been laid to rest, he did have concerns about the amount of pressure placed on her time and said the council needed to ‘keep a watchful eye on that’.

One of the aims of the arrangemen­t with East Sussex was to prove to the government that West Sussex had the capability and capacity to improve.

When asked about this by Mr Jones, Mr Marshall said he had received ‘positive feedback and encouragem­ent’ from the Secretary of State and a report on the progress made would be sent to him shortly.

 ??  ?? Becky Shaw, chief executive at West Sussex County Council
Becky Shaw, chief executive at West Sussex County Council

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